Method and apparatus for inserting paper between plate-shape material

ABSTRACT

A method of inserting film shape protective material as paper, and the like between plate-shape material and such as steel sheets, aluminum sheets, glass plates, and the like, which are piled in a stack, being piled up by placing the protective material on the top or bottom of the plate-shape material, and characterized in that the forward end of the protective material is positioned transversely of the path of the plate-shape material on it is moved into the stacking position and is folded back in such manner as wrapping the forward end of the plateshape material so that the protective material is surely attached to the plate-shape material.

1451 Sept. 24, 1974 United States Patent 1191 Hegi et al.

270/58 X 270/58 156/216 X lshihara et al.

3,059,391 10/1962 Volks et 3,083,009 3/1963 Barr et 211.... 3,245,859

[ METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR INSERTING PAPER BETWEEN PLATE-SHAPE MATERIALB Sm NM ww m Am mm W D1" m Am h 0 m mm Ne G T W NH G2 w PrimaryExaminer-R0bert W. Michell Assistant ExaminerVincent Millin [73]Assignee: Nippon-Steel Corporation, Tokyo,

Japan Attorney, Agent, or FirmToren, McGeady and Stanger 22] Filed:Sept. 6, 1972 [57] ABSTRACT A method of inserting film shape protectivematerial Appl. No.: 286,816

as paper, and the like between plate-shape material and such as steelsheets, aluminum sheets, glass plates, and the like, which are piled ina stack, being piled up by placing the protective material on the top orbotshape material, and characterized in that the forward end of theprotective material is positioned transversely of the path of theplate-shape material on it is moved into the stacking position and isfolded back in such manner as wrapping the forward -shape material sothat the protective material is surely attached to the plate-shapematerial.

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2,628,092 2 1953 Malmros et 270/45 4 Claims, 15 Drawing Figures snmans aPAIENIED SEP2419H j F'IGE PATENIED 359241974 SHEHSBF 8 Pmmanwww 43.837.836

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FIGQQV- METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR INSERTING, PAPER BETWEEN PLATE-SHAPEMATERIAL The present invention relates to a method and apparatus(interleaver) for inserting film shape protective material made ofpaper, plastics, etc. between plateshape material such as a stainlesssteel sheet or plate, a color coated steel sheet, a galvanized steelsheet, a thin aluminium sheet, a glass plate, etc. for preventingscratches and damages to the surfaces and ends of said plate-shapematerial.

For a product in which scratches or damages on its surface should nottake place such as a stainless steel sheet, a color coated steel sheet,a galvanized steel sheet, a thin aluminium sheet or a glass plate, etc.,such operation is necessary as inserting protective paper between eachof the plate-shape material during the production process or at the timeof shipping.

Conventionally for such operation a method has been employed in which inthe case of cut sheet or plate, paper is cut beforehand into a suitableplate length and piled up then the paper is taken out sheet by sheet byhand and placed between the plate-shape material as it is piled.

Therefore, in a process such as a shear line, cutting speed isdetermined by the speed of plate surface inspection and of the operationto place the protective paper. That is, ordinarily in such a series ofoperations the speed is determined by the processing capacity of thesurface inspection and the piling up operation of the plate and paperwhich follow the cutting operation, instead of the effect of the cuttingoperation.

However, mechanization of the piling up operation of plate and paper hadnot been realized, thus the operation must be done manually and actualoperation has had to rely on man power.

But recently there has been some tendency to mechanize such anoperation, and an example thereof is as shown in P10. 1 which a steelsheet coil 2 is stretched into a flat sheet, and protective paper 1 isplaced upon the steel sheet before cutting operation, and the steelsheet 2 and the protective paper 1 are together and are cut together bya shear 3. But in this case, it is necessary to keep the steel sheet 2and the protective paper 1 together not to let them separate from eachother. While static electricity has been used as an example of bondingthem, but in such method the bonding effect is affected by humidity inthe air, and such method has the shortcoming that when humidity is highthe protective paper is separated from the steel sheet at the time ofpiling after cutting.

There is another method of using adhesives such as glue, etc., but thismethod results in impairing the gloss of steel sheet, or lowering thecommercial value of coloured or galvanized steel sheet.

Further another big disadvantage in said conventional methods lies inthat even if piling up of the steel sheet and the protective paper isdone with proper alignment, since the size of the steel sheet is thesame as that of the protective paper, no protection is afforded to theedges of the sheet during the piling operation when the edges contactthe surface of the already piled sheet or plate so that if only a slightsliding of the edge on the already piled plate takes place, the surfaceof the already piled plate is damaged by the edge.

The present invention is to eliminate such shortcomings anddisadvantages and is characterized by a method in which protectivematerial in film shape, such as paper, is placed on the top surface orbottom surface of plate-shape material such as steel sheet, aluminiumsheet, glass plate, etc. so that the protective material is insertedbetween plate-shape material as it is piled up, wherein the forward endportion of the protective material is folded back at the forward end ofthe plate shape material so that the protective material is surelyattached to the plate-shape material by gravity or vacuum method, etc.

And as a method of folding back the forward end of protective materialonto the forward end of the plate like material so that the protectivematerial is stuck to upper surface or bottom surface of the plate shapematerial, the forward end of the protective material is made to protrudea little out of pass line of the plateshape material in such manner asblocking the pass line of the plate-shape material, and the forward endof the protective material is placed onto and hooked by the forward endof the plate-shape material and the protruded part is bent and folded bybending pinch rolls, etc.

Further the present invention is characterized in that when the forwardend of protective material protruding out of said pass line is folded bythe folding pinch rolls, etc., in the above method, only a portion ofsaid forward end is folded thereby the folded back part of theprotective material is opened up again at the time of piling up of theplate-shape material for preventing the collapse of the pile.

The present invention is further characterized in:

1. An interleaver for inserting paper between plateshape material whichis characterized by at a plateshape material transfer apparatus having aconveyor roller with pinch rollers provided on its upper part, and asheet detecting device being provided near a feeding conveyor rollerlocated adjacent to the above mentioned conveyor roller, pinch rollersare oppositely provided in the middle between the above mentioned pinchrollers and the conveyor, and also there is provided a paper feedingdevice having a clutch and a brake connected with said sheet detectingdevice at both sides of the driving pinch rollers, the paper feedingdevice also has a shearing blade coupled with a cutter cylinder which isconnected with the sheet detecting device positioned in front of thepaper send out end of the pinch rollers oppositely positioned, whereinthe position where the paper transfer device is provided is such thatthe distance from the position of shearing blade for protective paper tothe point where the protective paper sent out comes across the forwardend of the plate-shape material is shorter than the distance from thepoint of crossing to the detecting position by the sheet detectingdevice, and

2. an interleaver for inserting paper in the piling of plate-shapematerial which is characterized by folding pinch rollers are provided infront of the piling device and at the transporting plane on a pass lineof the plateshape material, further there is provided, facing thefolding pinch roller and along the paper supply and transfer line, papertransferring rollers, a paper cutting device and a paper transferringguide device which has a gas blow out opening and a forward end guide ina paper transferring direction and is connected with the papertransferring rollers and the paper cutting device, and

3. a tuckin (insertion) apparatus for paper-like material in anapparatus for inserting paper between plateshape materials in whichpaper folding pinch rollers are oppositely provided up and down on atransporting pass line of conveyor rollers, and a paper feeding deviceis provided at a suitable location between the adjacently placedpositions, wherein a concave part is formed at about center of the upperroller of the above mentioned pinch rollers.

The object of the present invention lies in composing the paperinserting apparatus so that arrival of the forward end of the steelsheet is detected by the detecting device, then its signal is sent tothe paper feeding device, wherein by the device the protective paperarrives at the crossing position on the steel sheet transferring passline earlier than the arrival of the forward end of the steel sheet, andby sending out more of the protective paper by the paper transferringdevice the protective paper is hooked around the forward end of thesteel sheet and is made to pass between the pinch roller and theconveyor roller thus the forward end of paper is folded to two with thesteel sheet being held therebetween, and the paper and the steel sheetare fed into a piler with both of them so closely put together so as notto separate and the edge of the plate is protected by the protectingpaper, so that surface scratch and damage and particularly, damages bythe non-protected edge of the sheet on the surface of the already-piledsheet are effectively prevented.

The present invention can also be composed as required so that a loopdevice is provided between a paper supply device and the paper feedingdevice whereby the invention can be fitted to speeding up of theoperating line or a large diameter paper coil can be used, reducing thenumber of stops of operation due to breaking of paper.

Now examples of the present invention shall be explained in detailreferring to drawings.

FIG. 1 is a schematic drawing of an existing apparatus for insertingpaper between plate-shape material.

FIG. 2 is a schematic drawing of a shear line having the apparatus ofthe present invention.

FIG. 3 is a detailed schematic drawing of a protective paper supplydevice.

FIG. 4 is a schematic drawing of FIG. 3 with a portion thereof shown indetail.

FIGS. 5-A and 5-8 are schematic drawings for paper send out part.

FIG. 6 is a schematic drawing to show its mechanism.

FIGS. 7 and 8 are detailed schematic drawings of a paper supply device.

FIG. 9 is a side elevation to show a modification of a papertransferring device of the present invention.

FIGS. 10, and 11 are schematic drawings in cross sectional view ofimportant parts of FIG. 9.

FIGS. 12, and 13 are drawings to show the state of inserting paper likematerial by the apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 14 is a front elevation of a modification of the pinch rollers ofthe apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 15 is an oblique three dimensional drawing to show the state oftucking in (folding-in) by the apparatus of the present invention.

EXAMPLE 1 FIG. 2 is an overall drawing to explain the positionalarrangement showing an example wherein the present invention is appliedto the shear line, wherein 4 shows a shear to cut steel sheet, 5 is aninspection conveyor, 5' shows a switching conveyor for steel sheets,wherein steel sheets are sorted into upper and lower conveyors dividingthem by feeding order by said switching conveyor 5'. 6 is a feed inconveyor and detection of forward end and rear end of a steel sheet andmeasuring of plate length are done by a detecting device 30, which is tobe described later, near the last end of the conveyor 6.

7 is a vacuum conveyor to suck the steel sheets fed in and carry thesame to prescribed position, 8 shows a piler to receive said steelsheets, and 9 is a protective paper supply device by which paper coil isunwound according to the plate length and speed.

10 is a loop device used to correspond with high speed, and 11, 11' arepinch rollers. 12 is a paper feeding device which receives supply ofprotective paper by the above mentioned supply device 9 and conductstransferring of paper, and 9' shows a feed in conveyor for paper coil.

FIG. 3 shows a main body of the paper feed out device, wherein 30 showsthe detecting device to detect the forward end and rear end of steelsheet, 11, 11 show the pinch rollers which send out paper correspondingto the length and speed of the steel sheet measured by the abovementioned sheet detecting device 30.

19 shows a cutter to cut the protective paper 1, and 19 shows a bladereceiving stand of the cutter 19. 22 shows a paper support stand, 20shows a toggle link, and 21 shows a cutter cylinder, wherein the signalof the above mentioned steel sheet detecting device 30 is transmitted tothe cutter cylinder 21 to let the toggle link 20, the blade edge stand19, and the blade edge 19 work upward, so that the protective paper 1 iscut thereby and by the paper support stand 22.

23 shows an inlet roll for the paper 1. 24 shows a paper spanning board,25 shows a paper guide, 26 shows a steel sheet receiving roll, 27 showsa guide, 28 shows conveyor roller and, 29 shows a conveyor for feedinginto the piler, 31 is a spanning board to feed steel sheet, 32 shows ascrew down device of the pinch roll 11', and 33 shows an air tube tosend air to the paper guide 25 to facilitate feeding of the paper.

The present invention is composed so that the distance from the crossingpoint, of the proceeding direction of the protective paper beingtransferred to the transferring pass line of the plate shape materialbeing transferred and the plate shape material transferring pass line,to the edge position of the cutting blade 19 is shorter than thedistance from said crossing point to the detecting position of the plateshape material by the detector 30.

Now important parts of the above arrangements shall be explained. Thefeeding conveyor 6 and the paper send out roll 11 are made to have samespeed by having the driving diverted from the conveyor 6, and 11 rotatesalways under same condition as that for the conveyor 6, and one rotationper sheet of steel sheet will be made by an in and out of the clutch tobe explained later.

Now, when steel sheet 2 proceeds to the state shown in FIG. 3, the papersend out device cuts the paper in the shape shown in the drawing duringits proceeding, into such length as required for sending out.

The steel sheet 2 hooks a forward end of paper and enters between nextpinch roll and conveyor and is sent to the piler 8 in the form shown inthe drawing. The piler 8 sucks the steel sheet with the vacuum conveyor7 and drops the same at a predetermined position thus performing thepiling.

Next, the paper send out device shall be explained in detail by FIG. 4.

11 is a driving pinch roll having a clutch 12' and a brake 13 on bothsides. 11' is a reduction pinch roll,

and the driving is diverted from the conveyor 6 (it could be the otherone if it is of same speed conveyor) to a sprocket 15, and the sprocket15 and a clutch 12' rotate simultaneously on an axle of the pinch roll11 on which they are rotatably placed. The clutch 12 becomes in and thebrake 13 is cut by steel sheet forward end detecting signal of the steelsheet detecting device 30 to rotate the pinch rolls 11 11, then theclutch is cut and the brake becomes to work by the sheet rear enddetecting device, while paper of such length as required for the lengthof steel sheet is sent out. The sheet rear end detecting signal works onthe cutter cylinder 21 to have the toggle link 20, a blade receivingstand 19' and the blade 19 work upward to perform cutting of papertogether with paper stand 22.

Therefore, the pinch rolls 11 11' stop in such form as tucking paper asmuch as the separation between the center of the pinch roll and thecenter of cutter.

Next, the arrangement of the paper loop device shown in FIG. 2 shall beexplained. Ordinary paper is fed in such manner as shown in FIG. S-A.That is, a small loop is provided between paper send out pinch rolls ll11 and the paper coil 9" to brake slightly the paper coil 9" during thesending out of the pinch rolls 11 11' for unwinding the same with backtension, and this method can be applied with speed of 50 to 75 metersper minute. In this method the diameter of paper coil can not be madelarge as paper will be cut. Therefore it has such shortcoming that theoperation must be stopped while the paper coil is being replaced,impairing production.

FIG. S-B shows a case wherein the protective paper is placed on upperface of the steel sheet and its principle is same as that for FIG. 5-A.

While this example shows a case of 4 loops in FIG. 6, the amount of loopincreases as the number of loops increase. In FIG. 6 34 is a loop guide,35 is an up and down roll, 36 is a rack gear for the up and down roll(to retain the roll 35 in horizontal position), and 37 is a fixing rollfor the loop. A limit switch 38 is attached to upper part of the loopguide 34 and a limit switch 39 is attached to lower part of the same.FIG. 7 shows a paper supply device. 9" is a paper coil, note FIGS. 5-Aand SB 40 is a coil receiving stand, 41 is a coil center and 42 is acylinder for moving the center 41 in and out. Thus the drawing is anover all view but as details are not shown this mechanism shall beexplained in FIG. 8.

In FIG. 8, 43 is an over-run clutch, 44 is a clutch for driving thecenter 41, and 45 is an electric motor being driven at the same speed asthat of plate speed. 46 is a driving chain, 47 is an emergency stopbrake, 48 is a brake for back tension, 50 is a timing pulley, 51 is atransmitting chain, 52 is a pulse generator, and 53 is a converter toadjust the braking powerof the back tension brake based on the figuredetected from the pulse generator 52.

The relationship between the paper supply and the loop device shall beexplained by FIG. 6 and FIG. 8. When the paper sending signal isreceived while the up and down roll 35 is located at position A in FIG.,6, the clutch 12' (FIG. 4) of the pinch roll 11 and the clutch 44 forcenter driving become in, effecting sending of or feeding the paper.

As the clutch 44 is intended to assist starting up the paper coil (forpreventing the cutting of paper), the clutch 44 is placed in off stateby a timer and takes the paper out while giving tension with the backtension brake 48. Next when the clutch 12' is cut, the brake 13 is inand the emergency stop brake 47 is in by the stop signal, the paper coilproceeds with inertia then stops and the up and down roll stops abovethe limit switch 39 in FIG. 6. When from this state next paper is fed,that is the in and cut of the clutch 12' is done with regular intervalsthe emergency stop brake 47 does not function and the up and down roll35 sends out paper maintaining almost same distance.

When distance between plates is wide, that is when there is rejectedplate the clutch will be delayed to be in thus the paper coil continuesto be unwound and the up and down roll 35 continues descending.

At this time when the limit switch 39 is passed, the emergency stopbrake 47 becomes in by the signal 39 stopping the paper coil.

While the above shows the relationship between the paper supply deviceand the loop device, the system shown in FIGS. S-A and 5-B will havecutting of paper and can have only small diameter paper coil. Thus ithas such shortcoming as having suspension of operation duringprocessing, but the method shown above has such advantage that it has nopaper cutting with short loop. Thus paper insertion can be done using alarge diameter paper coil.

Next explanations shall be made of the function.

The arrival of the forward end of plate-shape material is detected bythe sheet detecting device 30 provided near the conveyor 6, and bytransmitting the signal to the clutch 12' which diverts the driving fromthe above mentioned conveyor 6 and making simultaneous rotation, thepinch rollers 11 11' are rotated with the clutch 12' being coupled tothe pinch roller 11, thereby sending the protective paper out to thetransferring pass line of the plate-shape material, then the rear end ofthe plate-shape material is detected by the detector 30 and at a sametime when the coupling of the clutch 12' and the pinch roller 11 isreleased by the signal the sending of the protective paper is stopped byhaving the pinch roller 11 coupled with the brake 13, and the abovementioned signal for passing of the rear end of plate shape material isalso transmitted to the cutter cylinder 21 to activate the cuttercylinder 21 to perform cutting of protective paper.

Therefore the apparatus is stopped in such a state that the paper isinserted as much as the separation from the point between the pinchrollers 11 11' and the cutting blade.

And in the present invention the apparatus is so arranged that thedistance from the crossing point of the proceeding direction of theprotective paper being sent out toward the transferring pass line of theplate-shape material and the transferring pass line of the plateshapematerial to the edge position of the cutting blade 19 is shorter thanthe distance from same crossing point to the detecting position of theplate-shape material by the detecting device 30, and the protectivepaper is made to arrive at the above mentioned crossing point alwaysearlier than the forward end of the plate-shape material thus theprotective paper is sent out more, and it is hooked by the forward endof the plate and is fed into between the pin roller 14 and the conveyorroller 28.

EXAMPLE 2 Example 2 of the present invention shall be explainedreferring to the side elevation shown in FIG. 9. In the drawing 113 is aframe of a paper sending device according to the present invention, 114is a paper erecting guide to erect the protective paper 102 into thevertical direction, 115 is a tightening bolt for fixing the papererecting stand to an end part of a guide device to screw the lower partof the paper erecting forwardend guide 114 to the guide device 105 noteFIG. 10, which guides a protective paper 102.

The paper erecting forwardend guide 114 is made of elastic material inthe present invention, and guides the protective paper 102 to erect thesame vertically, and the protective paper 102 is hooked by the passingsteel sheet 101, note FIG. 10, then as the protective paper 102 ispulled to the direction of the pinch rollers 109 109', the protectivepaper 102 is guided vertically while preventing the protective paper 102from creasing by the paper erecting forward end guide 114 which is ofelastic material, then the guide 114 bends itself following theproceeding of the protective paper 102 and the paper can be insertedbetween steel sheet without going against the proceeding of the paper.The forward end guide 114 can be of such mechanism as can follow theproceeding of the protective paper 102 after guiding the protectivepaper 102 to vertical direction, for example, rigid material can beaxially placed at its lower part to an end part of the guide device andis placed on a spring thereby providing the same in a freely rotatablemanner. And it can be positioned by any suitable methods and not limitedto the above mentioned axial positioning with bolt.

116 is a cutter guide, and 107 shows blade edge of a cutter to cut theprotective paper 102. 107 is a blade stand of the cutter 107, and 107"shows its fixing stand. 119, 119', 119" show, respectively, link partsof a toggle link which are axially supported in such manner as freelyrotatable to each other, and the lower part 119' of the toggle link isprovided in a freely rotatable manner to the paper sending device frame113 by suitable member, and the upper toggle link part 119 is axiallyplaced to the lower end of the fixing stand 107 127 is a guide frame toguide the toggle link parts 1 19, 119', 119" to in the verticaldirection, and one end thereof is provided at the paper sending deviceframe 113 by a suitable member, and the other end is axially placed tothe above mentioned toggle links 119, 119' in a freely rotatable manner.120 shows an actuating device, being engaged at one of its ends to thetoggle links 119, 119", and in this example a cutter cylinder, and it isarranged so that the forward end and rear end of a steel sheet aredetected by the detecting device 108 and their signals are transmittedto the cutter cylinder 120 thus activating the cutter cylinder 120,pushing the toggle link, and being guided by the guide frame 127, thenthe toggle link is pushed upward making the fixing stand 107", the bladeedge 107 and the blade edge 107 ascend performing the cutting of theprotective paper 102 by the blade stand 105 and the blade edge 107, thenafter cutting descending will be done in the order reverse to the abovementioned order.

The above mentioned cutting device is not limited to the use of thetoggle links 119, 119', 119", but may naturally be other actuatingmechanism for example such mechanism as directly ascending anddescending by fluid pressure cylinder.

The blade receiving stand 10 should be as shown in FIG. 9, only at rearof the blade edge 107 that is at paper sending side or at left side ofFIG. 9 but preferably not at front of the same. The reason therefore isthat when an upward blade 10 is provided at front end, bending of theforward end of the protective paper 102 at the time of cutting whichcauses enfolding is prevented.

Of cource for advantages in cutting protective paper 102 it can beprovided also in front of the blade edge 107, but in such case apressurized gas blowing member or other suitable member may be providedto prevent enfolding of the protective paper 102.

117 is a paper receiving roller to receive the protective paper 102 fromsupply side and send the same out, and 106 106' show paper transferringpinch rollers, which are connected to the above mentioned detectingdevice 108, and passing of the forward end of the steel sheet 101 isdetected by the detecting device 108, then the protective paper 102 ismade to arrive at the crossing point of the steel sheet 101 alwaysearlier than the arrival of the forward end of steel sheet, whereinpassing of the rear end is detected to stop sending of paper.

121 is a paper spanning board between the paper receiving roller 117 andthe pinch rollers 106 106 and 123 is a pressurized gas supply pipeprovided near the pinch rollers 106, 106' that is in this example infront position of the cutter guide 116, and 124 shows a blow out nozzleprovided at the pressurized gas supply-pipe 123, and said nozzle isprovided in necessary numbers in the crosswise direction of the platehaving their blow out openings facing obliquely to the proceedingdirection of the protective paper 102 from both upper and lowerpositions. 125 is a pressurized gas supply pipe at a suitable distancefrom the above mentioned pressurized gas supply pipe 123 and in thisexample at rear of the cutter guide 116 at the right side in thedrawing. 126 shows a nozzle provided at said pressurized gas supplypipe, and the blow out opening of the nozzle is provided to verticaldirection as along the forward end guide 114 described before.

Now an example of function of the apparatus of this example shall beexplained. As shown in FIG. 9 the protective paper 102 is seized bystationary pinch rollers 106, 106 and is floating within the guide insuch state as being pulled by the gaseous pressure from the blow outnozzles 124 provided at cross-wise direction at upper and lowerdirection of the pressurized gas supply pipe 123.

Now as shown in FIG. 9 the steel sheet is transferred by a sendingconveyor and the forward end of the steel sheet is detected by adetecting device (refer to FIG. 3). Said the detecting device isconnected to actuating mechanism of the paper transferring pinch rollers106,

106' and the cutter 107, and the detecting signal for arrival of thesteel sheet is transmitted to the actuating mechanism of the pinchrollers 106, 106' for paper sending, then the paper transferring pinchrollers 106, 106 are rotated with the signal through the actuatingmechanism that is a clutch (not shown in the drawings) provided on anaxle for the pinch rollers 106, 106 thus the protective paper 102 issent out without causing crease by the action of the gas pressure by theblow out nozzle 124, then the protective paper 102 is made to contactthe forward end guide 114 while crease is prevented by gas pressure ofthe blow out nozzle 126 and is turned into the vertical direction, thusthe protective paper 102 is made to erect itself and is transferred inthe vertical direction crossing the transferring pass line of the steelsheet.

In this case in order to have the forward end of the protective paper102 arrive earlier than the forward end of the steel sheet at thecrossing point of the transferring pass line of the steel sheet and theprotective paper 102, the pinch rollers 106, 106 'are actuated by thedetecting device 108, and the forward end of the protective paper 102which blocks the proceeding direction of the steel sheet is pushed, andbent by the pinch rollers 109 109, then the detecting device 108 detectsthe rear end of the steel sheets and the signal is transmitted to thecutter actuating mechanism that is the cutter cylinder 120 to actuatethe same, and the fixing stand 107", the blade stand, blade edge 107 aremade to ascend and descend to cut the protective paper 102 with theblade receiving stand 105 and the blade edge 107, and at the same timethe brake (not shown in the drawing) for the pinch roller 106, 106 isactuated by the signal from the detecting device to stop rotation of therollers, stopping the sending of the protective paper to wait for nextsending.

When elastic material is used in the forward end guide 114 as theprotective paper 102 is made to vertically cross the transferring passline of the steel sheet and to advance to the proceeding direction afterhaving its forward end folded by the pinch rollers 109, 109 the guide114 is deformed as shown in FIG. 11. Thus the change from the state ofFIG. 10 to FIG. 11 is done rapidly, therefore it is not necessary to useparticularly strong paper as the protective paper 102, and creasing ofpaper is prevented by the forward end guide 114.

The guide device consists of 105, 105 and 105 and particularly l0 worksas the receiving stand to receive the cutter blade edge 107 at the timeof paper cutting, and in this case the receiving stand 105" is providedonly at rear end but not at front end, thereby the protective paper 102is prevented from being caught or tucked in.

EXAMPLE 3 This example shows a modification of the pinch rollers in theapparatus of the present invention. The pinch roller is so made as tohave the shape shown in FIG. 14, that is to have an indented part withsuitable length at about center of the pinch roller 209. That is, thecentral portion of the pinch roller 209' has a stepped shape so thatwhen the protective paper 202 is folded, only both end parts are foldedwhile the central part is not folded but only bent (refer to FIG. 15).

The protective paper 202 is as in the foregoing Examples is made tovertically protrude so as to crossing the transferring path direction ofthe steel sheet perpendicularly, so that the forward end of the steelsheet pushes the protective paper 202 to bend the same and furtherfolding of the same is done by the pinch roll.

As the central part of the upper pinch roller 209 is made to have astepped shape as shown in FIG. 14 in this case, the folding of the paperis done only at both end parts of the pinch roller 209 while the centralpart is only bent without having folding line (mark) as shown in FIG.15, and the paper in such shape is sent into a lifter by a conveyor anda vacuum conveyor, thus the folded part of the paper is made to erect bysliding in of the steel sheet or by blowing in of gas if necessary,preventing such shortcoming that unevenness in the surface of the steelsheet or unevenness in the piling height of paper insertion is generatedcausing collapse of pile.

What is claimed is:

l. A method of inserting film shape protective material, such as paper,between individual sheets of plateshape material, such as steel sheets,aluminum sheets, glass plates and the like, including moving individualsheets of the plate-shape material along a first path of travel to astacking position, locating a signal-emitting member along the firstpath of travel of the plate-shape material upstream from the stackingposition for sensing the movement of a sheet of the material along itspath of travel, feeding a continuous strip of protective material alonga second path of travel toward the first path of travel so that the twopaths of travel intersect, positioning a cutting member in the secondpath of travel for cutting the strip of protective material, wherein theimprovement comprises synchronizing the speeds of travel of theprotective material and the plate-shape material for movement at thesame speed along their respective paths of travel, locating the cuttingmember closer to the point of intersection of the first and second pathsof travel than the signal-emitting member, actuating the movement of thestrip of protective material as the leading end of each individual sheetof plate-shape material passes the signal-emitting member so that theleading end of the strip of protective material advances across thefirst path of travel before the sheet of plate-shape material, whichactuated the signal, reaches the point of intersection of the two pathsof travel so that the leading end of the plate-shape material contactsthe strip of protective material rearwardly of the leading end of thestrip, folding over the strip of protective material on the leading endof the sheet of plate-shape material, and cutting the strip ofprotective material in response to a signal emitted when the trailingend of the sheet of plate-shape material being covered by the protectivematerial passes the signal-emitted member.

2. A method, as set forth in claim 1, wherein folding only a portion ofa leading end of the strip of protective material on the leading end ofthe sheet of plate-shape material so that the portion of the leading endof the protective material not folded re-opens subsequently when thecovered sheet of plate-shape material is placed in a stack.

3. An interleaver for inserting a layer of protective material betweenindividual sheets of plate-shape material piled in a stack, comprisingmeans for conveying individual sheets of plate-shape material to astacking device and forming a first path of travel for the individualsheets, means for feeding a continuous strip of the protective materialalong a second path of travel intersecting the first path of travel sothat the protective material extends transversely along the first pathof travel, a detecting device positioned adjacent the first path oftravel for sensing the passage of individual sheets of plate-shapematerial along the first path of travel, said detecting device locatedupstream along the first path of travel from the point of intersectionof the first and second paths of travel, a cutting device located alongthe second path of travel upstream from the point of intersection of thefirst and second paths of travel, a guiding device for the protectivematerial located in the second path of travel between said cuttingdevice and the point of intersection of the first and second paths oftravel, said guiding device including an opening for blowing gas in thedirection of movement of the protective material and a forward end guidefor directing the protective material to the point of intersection ofthe first and second paths of travel, a pair of pinch rollers locateddownstream from the point of intersection from the paths of travel inthe first path of travel of the plate-shape material to be stacked,wherein the improvement comprises that said cutting deviceis located inthe second path of travel closer to the point of intersection of thefirst and second paths of travel than said detecting device located inthe first path of travel, said detecting device arranged to actuate saidmeans for feeding the protective material when the leading end of anindividual sheet of the plate-shape material passes said detectingdevice and for stopping said means for feeding the protective materialand for actuating the cutting device when the trailing end of the samesheet of plate-shape material passes said detecting device, said meansfor conveying the individual sheets of plateshape material and saidmeans for feeding the continuous strip of protective material arrangedto operate at the same speed so that, upon actuation by said detectingdevice, said means for feeding the continuous strip of protectivematerial feeds the strip along the second path of travel until itextends transversely across the first path of travel downstream from theleading end of the sheet of plate-shape material which caused thedetecting device to actuate said means so that the leading end of thestrip extends across and beyond the first path of travel and as theleading end of the sheet of plateshape material reaches the point ofintersection of the first and second paths of travel, it carries theleading end of the protective material into said pinch rollers with theleading end being folded over on the leading end of the sheet ofplate-shape material and as the trailing end of the same sheet ofplate-shape material passes said detecting device, the operation of saidmeans feeding the continuous strip of protective material isdiscontinued and said cutting device is actuated for cutting off thedesired length of the strip for covering the sheet of plate-shapematerial.

4. An interleaver, as set forth in claim 3, wherein said pinch rollersare arranged with a first portion of their surfaces in contactingrelationship and a second portion of their surfaces in spacedrelationship so that only a portion of the leading end of the strip isfolded over on the leading end of the sheet of plate-shape material withthe remaining portion capable of re-opening the time of the stacking ofthe sheets of the plate-shape material.

v V UNI ED STATES PATENT O FFICE CERTIFICATE OF CORRECTION Patent No.3lsi37r636 Dat d September 24, 1974 Inventor) Nobumitsu Hegi et a1 rorappears in the above identified patent 4 It is certified that ercorrected as shown below:

and that said Letters Patent are hereby In the Heading of the Patent:

The number of'the Japanese priority application of October-[29, 1971should read:

Signed and sealed this 3rd day of December 1974.

(SEAL) Atte'st: H McCOY M. GIBSON JR. c. MARSHALL DANN Arresting OfficerCommissioner of Patents USQZOMM-DC 608764 69 v.5. sovzgnmzn'r rnnmuoOFFICE 1 lulu-b334,

FORM PO-1OSO (10-69)

1. A method of inserting film shape protective material, such as paper,between individual sheets of plate-shape material, such as steel sheets,aluminum sheets, glass plates and the like, including moving individualsheets of the plate-shape material along a first path of travel to astacking position, locating a signal-emitting member along the firstpath of travel of the plate-shape material upstream from the stackingposition for sensing the movement of a sheet of the material along itspath of travel, feeding a continuous strip of protective material alonga second path of travel toward the first path of travel so that the twopaths of travel intersect, positioning a cutting member in the secondpath of travel for cutting the strip of protective material, wherein theimprovement comprises synchronizing the speeds of travel of theprotective material and the plate-shape material for movement at thesame speed along their respective paths of travel, locating the cuttingmember closer to the point of intersection of the first and second pathsof travel than the signal-emitting member, actuating the movement of thestrip of protective material as the leading end of each individual sheetof plate-shape material passes the signal-emitting member so that theleading end of the strip of protective material advances across thefirst path of travel before the sheet of plate-shape material, whichactuated the signal, reaches the point of intersection of the two pathsof travel so that the leading end of the plate-shape material contactsthe strip of protective material rearwardly of the leading end of thestrip, folding over the strip of protective material on the leading endof the sheet of plate-shape material, and cutting the strip ofprotective material in response to a signal emitted when the trailingend of the sheet of plate-shape material being covered by the protectivematerial passes the signal-emitted member.
 2. A method, as set forth inclaim 1, wherein folding only a portion of a leading end of the strip ofprotective material on the leading end of the sheet of plate-shapematerial so that the portion of the leading end of the protectivematerial not folded re-opens subsequently when the covered sheet ofplate-shape material is placed in a stack.
 3. An interleaver forinserting a layer of protective material between individual sheets ofplate-shape material piled in a stack, comprising means for conveyingindividual sheets of plate-shape material to a stacking device andforming a first path of travel for the individual sheets, means forfeeding a continuous strip of the protective material along a secondpath of travel intersecting the first path of travel so that theprotective material extends transversely along the first path of travel,a detecting device positioned adjacent the first path of travel forsensing the passage of individual sheets of plate-shape material alongthe first path of traveL, said detecting device located upstream alongthe first path of travel from the point of intersection of the first andsecond paths of travel, a cutting device located along the second pathof travel upstream from the point of intersection of the first andsecond paths of travel, a guiding device for the protective materiallocated in the second path of travel between said cutting device and thepoint of intersection of the first and second paths of travel, saidguiding device including an opening for blowing gas in the direction ofmovement of the protective material and a forward end guide fordirecting the protective material to the point of intersection of thefirst and second paths of travel, a pair of pinch rollers locateddownstream from the point of intersection from the paths of travel inthe first path of travel of the plate-shape material to be stacked,wherein the improvement comprises that said cutting device is located inthe second path of travel closer to the point of intersection of thefirst and second paths of travel than said detecting device located inthe first path of travel, said detecting device arranged to actuate saidmeans for feeding the protective material when the leading end of anindividual sheet of the plate-shape material passes said detectingdevice and for stopping said means for feeding the protective materialand for actuating the cutting device when the trailing end of the samesheet of plate-shape material passes said detecting device, said meansfor conveying the individual sheets of plate-shape material and saidmeans for feeding the continuous strip of protective material arrangedto operate at the same speed so that, upon actuation by said detectingdevice, said means for feeding the continuous strip of protectivematerial feeds the strip along the second path of travel until itextends transversely across the first path of travel downstream from theleading end of the sheet of plate-shape material which caused thedetecting device to actuate said means so that the leading end of thestrip extends across and beyond the first path of travel and as theleading end of the sheet of plate-shape material reaches the point ofintersection of the first and second paths of travel, it carries theleading end of the protective material into said pinch rollers with theleading end being folded over on the leading end of the sheet ofplate-shape material and as the trailing end of the same sheet ofplate-shape material passes said detecting device, the operation of saidmeans feeding the continuous strip of protective material isdiscontinued and said cutting device is actuated for cutting off thedesired length of the strip for covering the sheet of plate-shapematerial.
 4. An interleaver, as set forth in claim 3, wherein said pinchrollers are arranged with a first portion of their surfaces incontacting relationship and a second portion of their surfaces in spacedrelationship so that only a portion of the leading end of the strip isfolded over on the leading end of the sheet of plate-shape material withthe remaining portion capable of re-opening the time of the stacking ofthe sheets of the plate-shape material.